Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)- The Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Davoud Mir Hosseini, a 42-year-old married man accused of murder.

First arrested in 2014, Mir Hosseini has been detained in Nishapur, in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan, ever since.

Mir Hosseini must now square off with the same anguishing fatality he once lawfully escaped: the Supreme Court previously reversed the death sentence issued to him in Nishapur Public Court Branch 3, but when the would-be closed case was forwarded to a parallel appeals court in 2017, authorities ruled back in favor of capital punishment. As announced by Mir Hosseini’s lawyer last week, the Supreme Court has moved to uphold it.

According to Amnesty International’s annual report, Iran ranks first in the world in executions per capita. According to registered data from the Statistics, Publications, and Achievements Division of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), at least 256 citizens were executed in Iran between October 10, 2017, and October 9, 2018, 15 of which were public hangings. Sixty-eight percent of executions, referred to as “secret executions,” are not announced by the state or Judiciary.